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Farid Mukhametshin: “Tatarstan's experience can be successfully expanded to a number of European countries".

Farid Mukhametshin: “Tatarstan's experience can be successfully expanded to a number of European countries".

Today at the meeting of the Chamber of Regions of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, the Tatarstan parliament speaker pointed out the importance of finding the right balance between state interests and principals of democracy. That is why Europe is searching for new forms of direct work of municipal and regional authorities with citizens.

Farid Mukhametshin participates in the session as an honorary member of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe. This status allows to defend the position of Russia on various issues. Farid Mukhametshin became the first representative of Tatarstan among other Russian delegates, who was awarded such a high rank.

The thirty-fourth session of the Congress opened on Monday, March 26, is devoted to the problems of protecting political rights and freedoms. The main focus of parliamentarians is on the work of ombudsmen at the local level. Within the framework of the session, bureau meetings of both chambers of the Congress, meetings of political groups and committees were already held. The key issue on the agenda was the regional identity and integrity of the state. European legislators also discussed mechanisms for holding regional referendums on the most important issues of living in the territories.

Farid Mukhametshin told his European colleagues about the experience of Tatarstan in building democratic principles of regional and local self-government. The head of the republican parliament noted that over the past 30 years the Congress had urged representatives of the Council of Europe states to expand the powers of the regions and in recent years had paid special attention to municipal authorities.

Farid Mukhametshin reminded that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, newly formed Russia proclaimed construction of a genuine federation based on independent regions as the basis of the constitutional system. He noted that Tatarstan had become a pioneer in this direction. The breakthrough of the republic was largely promoted by a new model of local self-government, due to which the power became closer to every citizen. Today in Tatarstan there are 956 municipalities, including 2 urban districts, 43 municipal districts and 911 settlements, 872 of which are rural.

Farid Mukhametshin said that in the process of municipal reform Tatarstan leaders relied on the best practices of the European colleagues, the European Charter of Local Self-Government and the TACIS programs. He is confident that Tatarstan practices could be successfully expanded to separate administrative and territorial entities of European states.